It's Just a Test

Everything happens, in the blink of an eye, many spend their hours wondering why, but I know the truth, and soon you will too, let me tell you now what I've learned to be true

I've had my world, smashed around, I've had my trust thrown down, to the curb, but every time I stood up, I knew, I made it through, and you will too

People will always bring you down, someone will always hate you and berate you, but know this now, it's all just a test, some pass, some fail, and some cheat, in the end you'll see, everyone gets their earned grade from the choices they have made

Tears will hit the ground, hope will dwindle down, but only when you make a smile a frown, will everything come around

Don’t let it bring you on the floor, times are tough but there's so much more, I know where to always find an open door

Every year is another question on the test, sometimes you'll answer the same problem from years ago, but to pass, you have to learn to grow, only then will you find everything you ever should know

When we look back, at decisions we made, memory helps us think, how to avoid the same mistakes, of yesterday

When your heart is crumbled on the ground, when only pain seems to surround, when you lose someone you love, when nothing seems to go right, remember you can always go left, it's just a test of might

With every incorrect is a correction, every mistake has a solution learned, here we stand right now, take a bow or go another round, the story doesn't have to end unhappily ever after, can't you save a character to once again bring laughter

Life is a test of courage and faith, within yourself, a test of heart and grace

When the view becomes tragic, turn around, and like magic, the scene is new, now exists a different perspective, we are tested to help us grow, to improve life, the pile hits the fan, to show each of us that we can, stay calm, move on, it's just a test of will to see who's strong

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Sweet Josephine

Within each thought lies care

Within each action is compassion

Motives only pure and selfless, and no redemption value is ever imposed

With each generosity comes charm and grace

The highest of all classes and ranking the lowest nowhere Because disregard and ill-will do not exist inside

With great remembrance and splendid adoration

This soul will never wilt as even the most beautiful rose will

This heart will never wither like the rose

And even more beautiful than the rose, this center of elegance and wisdom will always remain in bloom

This heart, this soul, this center of eternal loving kindess

Is you

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Dream On

Dreams are shattered by nothing more than being unfulfilled; nothing kills a dream like laziness and pessimism.

Almost everyone has dreams of something more and plenty have had a dream fade away. The real destruction of dreams are the dreamers themselves that never tried.

Dreams go unlived because the person didn't work towards it completely or made excuses. Somehow, those that accomplished, found a way. Busy people find a way to go to college, one class at a time, or cutting back on other expenses to get it done. Hardships will always exist but the strength from within can beat anything in life, an explanation is by any other name an excuse.

People with artificial legs run marathons, blind or deaf students excel in college, single Moms with two jobs find a way to squeeze in courses to get ahead in life and better provide. Life will bring a lot of bad days, how you handle them is up to you. Tragedy can destroy or inspire, misfortunes can deter or motivate. When obstacles present themselves, only you can shift the dark cloud.

People shouldn't hold you back either. Never let anyone harm your ambition. Let them huff and puff, so long as you don’t let them blow you down. Very few things are currently impossible, dreams are always worth chasing but they won't come true if you keep running at one speed; it's time to pick up the pace and become a dream catcher instead. Everything wonderful in life has come from taking risks, relying purely on faith something incredible will occur, and going after slim chances. My life would not be this great without providing myself hope. Had I not bothered to try new adventures, I would not be here and smiling. Take one deep breath and a deeper dive into the magnificent land unknown, full of potential and good things. Dream on.

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How?

How do you love, like you never have before? How do you search, for something even more? How do you find, the one you truly do adore? I think it happens by surprise, I think we learn to search inside, to find what our hearts really need to survive.

The unexpected will happen from time to time. In the most awful of times and happiest days, two hearts must stand together in order to carry on. Love and friendship are the greatest gifts to own. Under storm clouds or sunshine, don’t simply let go.

Raise your glass and your hearts to hope and triumph. May what is had be enough. May what is lacked be found and with care, be packed. Each are blessed moments, days and a blessing is a terrible treasure to waste.

How do our souls know, when the other is right? How do you see, when there seems to be no light? How do you hold on, never less than tight?

I think each embrace is touched with care and grace. I think it all happens in the right time and place. We must trust in all the world and space. To satisfy a heart, that's what it takes.

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And So I Begin...

My last post detailed my recent excursions that showed me the damage  in my neighborhood but today I did something about it; I got out before 8 this morning and cleaned it all up.  The cleanup only took about 45 minutes and I can back with over 100 empty bottles of alcohol that were scattered all across the field.  I picked up paper and plastic as well that had clung to the native plants but one cactus was a little too much for me and the waste was snug firmly on the thousands of thorns.

I pricked my fingers a dozen times in my first three attempts to free the trash from the cactus but the few pieces I could free snagged into smaller pieces that blew into the breeze.  Unfortunately much of that trash was left on the plant but I will come back with gloves and clippers to free it all from the prickly thorns so the animals don't ingest it and I don't have to see the decorated plant on my morning walk each day.

Of course every single item I picked up is recyclable and the bottles actually will bring me money come tomorrow when the recycling center opens in the morning.  It was a small gesture I made to not just drive by or walk by; but do something about the litter I saw.  We've all sped past litter of Cheeto bags on the side of the road, soda cans, and plastic bags, but so few of us ever bother to stop and pick it up.   I don't like seeing the garbage all over my neighborhood so I clean it up.


Everything I picked up today will be recycled tomorrow morning and the CRV will even give me a little pocket money for my efforts.  A small act is a huge act and every little thing you do matters.


My journey doesn't end today as there are always lots of wildlife that need to be cleaned up and I will be here to do so; feel free to join me here or across the country anytime.

Not On My Planet You're Not

This Earth is all of ours but most of us are destroying it rather than keeping in pristine.

The last three days, during my morning walk, I have noticed plastic bags all over the land stuck in cactus and trees; but the plastic bag has become brittle from the wind and sun so as I try to peel it from the plants, it breaks into tiny pieces or I prick myself endlessly on cactus needles.

I continue to pick up the garbage and put it all into my stroller basket to take it home because I put the waste into my recycling bin to be reused; but today's walk was a new path and I passed by a field of wild plants and at least one hundred small empty glass bottles of liquor.  I realized this place was a hangout where drunks party and discard their fun into the soil.

So with little room left in my stroller to take home, I decided for now to leave all those little glass bottles to take my son home but come back with gloves, trash bags, and sole determination to pick up all the waste in that field, recycle the bottles, and instead of using the CRV cash back to buy more beer like someone must have before me on this lot, I am going to use the money to take my son out to a fun night of football, friends, food, and moral elevation.

I looked at all those bottles of Corona, vodka, Bacardi, and I thought about the ignorance that had been partying here before me and the selfish remains of their foolishness that were left behind.  Why can't we have fun and be responsible at the same time?  Then I remembered alcohol destroys any sense and I doubt this group of drinkers arrived with much to begin with.

One of my latest projects is to start my own non-profit with an environmental responsibility sector to go out in vast areas picking up garbage and recycling with a group of volunteers and businesses in the area to make our areas cleaner and let those who help, keep the money from the bottles and cans they pick up and bring to the recycling center.  They did the work to pick it all up so they should enjoy a little revenue in return.  In this economy, an extra $60 is gas in the tank or a couple bags of groceries to take home.

If you're interested and have a particular area in mind, let me know and we'll work together to get it done.  It starts here in the land around my home but doesn't end here.

How Can You Say He's Not Trying?

"I stand by my country and whoever stands leading it.  I never wish for any president to fail unlike Limbaugh, I do not want my nation to fail.  Under every presidency, I try to find the things they did do, and if they get a slow start and make a lot of mistakes, that they acknowledge them at some point and vow to do better.  I understand this job is bigger than life and harder than any realize until they've done it.  I continue to think that our presidents learn as they go, and by the end of 4 years or 8, they have turned things around.  I assume the best in people because I have faith anyone is capable of errors and mending them.  You are never too old to learn new tricks and I pray that Obama and our Congress fix what they did wrong and learn from them the next two years.  My judgment will be my vote next Election Day."

Those are my beliefs.

He has made BP responsible for this spill, financially, publicly, and he has made them set up an escrow account to pay the fishermen and natives of the Gulf losing their livelihoods due to this disaster and they are paying the bill for the clean up.  He made visits, talked to local governors, ordered the Coast Guard to pressure BP and bring in more recruits and volunteers to siphon the oil and save the wildlife.

New jobs have been made since he came to office, the Cash for Clunkers was a huge success, offshore drilling is now banned as he puts major pressure on auto companies to make electric cars, and he brought in Clinton and Bush to join the nation together.  Health care and the economy are picking up as he continues to talk to Congress to vote on measures and set aside differences to get more done for the country to be bipartisan.  He has advocated to help Haiti, healthier school lunches, cutting Welfare abusers, and new homeowners received tax incentives.  Those who can afford more to help America, received a slight tax increase to go for education instead of Bentleys.  He is working with our enemies to be friends and work together to have more allies and less terrorist enemies that can attack our nation and kill our people and children.  He canceled vacations to do most of this.  Give the guy a break.  This is a tough job that was already a disaster when he was elected.  The economy already sank and all of this takes more than two years or a term to fix.  The economy has always been a roller coaster of ups and downs caused by previous leadership and mostly Wall Street and loan companies.  Big wigs got greedy to finance anyone and put us in a hole.  This will take more than one term or even two to fix.

What do you actually expect him to do in the Gulf?  He is working on it.  It's up to BP to cap the spill, drill the relief wells,  and clean up.  Do you make someone else clean up the mess you made?  BP makes the mess,  they clean it up.

Six Month Anniversary of Haiti's Quake

I'm watching a special on Haiti, 6 months today after the quake and I see these children starving as less people send aid to help and it makes me realize that seeing their bones and bloated stomachs from malnutrition, I understand why so many adopt in these types of countries so these children don't have to continue living this way and die of terrible disease. What I don't understand are the selfish A-Holes who criticize American families for adopting out of the country. How many foster kids do you know living as bad as African and Haitian children, and why does it matter? Giving a child a great life has no country boundary lines, no matter who you help, you are doing a great thing. Don't be selfish, all children around the world deserve any great heart to feed them and love them.  I agree our children deserve homes as well but if you're going to make someone feel bad for adopting another nationality, then can we call you a racist?  Can we make you feel shameful and inconsiderate for adopting no one?  Should those who have their own children or IVF be made to feel guilty?  No.   No one should be discriminated against for making decisions that suit their families best.

Humane Slaughtering- How can you humanely slaughter an animal?

I hate when people say they look for meat that is humanely slaughtered.  There's no such thing.  Have you ever been to a butchery?  Well I have.  Cows are tied up then wiggle and squirm while a butcher tries to put a pellet through their temple.  It's not a simple point and shoot, the cow feels nothing.  This is real murder.  Remember the cow that escaped a New York City meat factory?  She escaped because she wiggled free of her restraints and ran for her life.  See for yourself that there is no humane butchering.  Go to a slaughterhouse or listen to people who have worked in them.   YouTube slaughterhouses and see what comes up.

Some slaughter houses slit the throat as their main killing purpose or if the gun didn't kill the cow right away and still the animal feels great pain before it dies.  There is no way to humanely kill an animal.  Humane and murder are exact opposites, sorry people.  My grandparents raised cattle for meat and I can tell you from firsthand experience a cow knows death is near and there is no way to kill them gently without much pain and suffering.  All this nonsense about humane killing is BS.

Stop trying to justify your love of meat.  Just say you're not a vegetarian and call it a day but don't give yourself credit for claiming to eat humane food when there is no such thing unless you grow and raise it yourself and prepare it.

I don't justify humane slaughter because there is no such thing.  Slaughter, is real humane slaughter is not.  A bird's not is not harmed to pick a tomato or a pea pod.  There are no nests even around.  You can say you meat but if you believe there is actually such a thing as humane murder, you're incorrect.  Yes the animals are killed and put to use but not humanely and FAR fewer animals are harmed in vegetable production if any because they aren't intentionally being killed and housed in disgusting, crowded corrals. 

It's more than how they're killed but also how they are raised, pumped with fillers, steroids, and housed in horrible conditions making them sick and carrying those diseases to us so consumers get Mad Cow Disease and E. Coli bacteria.  The meat industry is barbaric and careless.  They'll market any gimmic to protect their reputation.  That same meat is fed to chickens and pigs to plump them up in addition to the contaminated living quarters and drugged diets chickens and pigs live in so your meat is now ten times more dangerous than it was when the animals were born.  The pork and chicken you eat are all susceptible to deadly toxins from their diets of contaminated beef  and disgusting housing areas.  Meat recalls and factory closures happen all the time but the USDA does it quietly because the meat market is in the same pocket of government as Big Oil.

 A Chino, California slaughterhouse has been shut down three times in five years for unsanitary conditions and selling meat with dangerous bacteria.  That bacteria was spread to other meat shipments when the USDA tested their slaughtering cleavers and knives to discover they had several strands of bacteria and had not been properly sanitized in recent weeks.  That same business was found to be killing sick animals testing positive for diseases that could harm humans.  They were ordered to shut down three times because the first two times, they were not compliant.  It took the USDA three visits to make sure business stopped while consumers reported major illnesses and hospitalizations.

Other slaughterhouses say they haven't had an inspection in years!  This happens all the time in the industry as major meat packing companies pay out money each year to politicians.  It's all corrupt.  Did you hear about this slaughterhouse in the news and the massive recall of their meat?  Probably not because the media was paid off and much of the meat was discreetly recalled.  Grocery store owners also don't want the bad publicity because less people will buy their meat if they admit to buying from a company recalling tainted meat and the same goes for restaurant owners so they send the meat back without telling anyone.  The only one you can trust with your food is you.

Killing is killing. Can you humanely abort a pregnancy? No. There's no such thing as humane murder. They negate one another. Humane slaughter is an oxymoron that doesn't make any sense.

You either eat meat that has been killed by the hands and weapons of humans or you're not eating meat.  That's it.  Stop saying your cow was killed humanely, because it wasn't.  It's BS!  Can you humanely kill a human?  No.  Maybe pulling one off a ventilator or pulling the plug as you may call it, but to get to that point the person had suffering beforehand and cows aren't magically shut down or put on life support.  So-called humane slaughterhouses don't have magic cows that sit still, take a bullet, and rest in peace while the rest have normal cows that move and recognize the moo of pain.

IWC In Session Regarding the Future of Whaling

Lifting any ban on whaling is inhumane and disgusting. Whaling needs to be banned and left that way. It's as simple as that. Whaling is internationally illegal, that would be a great ruling.
People who don't think stopping whale hunts are important have no idea how ecosystems work. They are vital to the environment and the circle of life. This is a no brainer to me but the IWC has faulty logic and neurological issues. Save the whales and let Japan and other nations research like others do and eat cows or soy burgers. I'd rather save the whales then their lucrative business of whale meat.

I don't have to think twice to know there is no research need for whaling. Whales die in the wild and captivity all the time and tissue samples and stomach contents can be weighed then and even taken while the whales are alive. Tissue samples can be done on live animals without slaughtering but God forbid animals go WITHOUT suffering. That would just be wrong right? Japan and Iceland seem to think so.

I'm more about saving whales than black market meat sales and money from animals necessary to the environment. If the IWC really cares to see who is hunting for scientific research, rewrite the bi-laws to outlaw the sale of meat and see how far down whale hunting becomes in popularity. This isn't scientific research, it's a loophole to let animals die for no reason in horrific fashion.

I think I make point well that I don't give a darn about the whale meat trade and how profitable it is for other nations. So is beef but we don't take animals directly out of the environment to extinction to eat and make money. I'm a vegetarian but I will support Japan selling beef before killing a species off the Earth. At least cows we raise and breed. Again I don't eat any animals because I value all life but whales are so significant to the wild and natural balance of the oceans. If you must eat meat, please don't go to whales to do so. We aren't breeding and raising them nor should we so they will die out one day far too soon and the oceans will never be the same.

Frustrations Amount Over Environmental Destruction

I am so sick and tired of the way the environment is treated and the lack of humility in millions across the globe. Treating animals, the air, and our beautiful planet is more important to me than almost anything besides my family of course but I want to see real proactive change being done to stop destroying our environments with landfills full of plastic and batteries, and our needless waste of things that could easily be reused or recycled. I've seen perfectly good teddy bears that could have been given to a poor family or leukemia patient in a hospital. I am so tired of the poor attitudes many bring to this amazing planet that has been selfless to provide everything we could ever need and we do nothing in return but treat it like a spoiled child saying "Gimmie." I care deeply about the Earth and I want to see more done and strangle the IWC for not banning whaling for good EVERYWHERE.

I just had to say this and express how I really feel about careless attitudes everywhere I go. It's literally making me sick. My congestion and sinus headaches have been at it for over a week now as I see more garbage bins full of recyclable items and perfectly good things that could be donated to Goodwill.

Palin Blames Environmentalists for Oil Leak

And I thought it was BP.

 

 This is from her Facebook page:

This is a message to extreme “environmentalists” who hypocritically protest domestic energy production offshore and onshore. There is nothing “clean and green” about your efforts. Look, here’s the deal: when you lock up our land, you outsource jobs and opportunity away from America and into foreign countries that are making us beholden to them. Some of these countries don’t like America. Some of these countries don’t care for planet earth like we do – as evidenced by our stricter environmental standards.

With your nonsensical efforts to lock up safer drilling areas, all you’re doing is outsourcing energy development, which makes us more controlled by foreign countries, less safe, and less prosperous on a dirtier planet. Your hypocrisy is showing. You’re not preventing environmental hazards; you’re outsourcing them and making drilling more dangerous.

Extreme deep water drilling is not the preferred choice to meet our country’s energy needs, but your protests and lawsuits and lies about onshore and shallow water drilling have locked up safer areas. It’s catching up with you. The tragic, unprecedented deep water Gulf oil spill proves it.

We need permission to drill in safer areas, including the uninhabited arctic land of ANWR. It takes just a tiny footprint – equivalent to the size of LA’s airport – to tap America’s rich and plentiful oil and gas up north. ANWR’s drilling footprint is like a postage stamp on a football field.

But it’s not just ANWR; it’s our Petroleum Reserve, too. As Governor Sean Parnell noted today in the Wall Street Journal:

“Federal agencies are also now blocking oil development in the National Petroleum Reserve—Alaska.

Although familiar with ANWR, most Americans are less likely to know about NPR-A and how vital it is to our energy security. Given recent developments, it’s time to elevate the position this area holds in our national discourse.

NPR-A, a 23 million acre stretch of Alaska’s North Slope, was set aside by President Warren Harding in 1923 for the specific purpose of supplying our country and military with oil and gas. Since 1976 it has been administered by the Department of the Interior, and since 1980 it has been theoretically open for development. The most recent estimates indicate that it holds 12 billion barrels of oil and 73 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

In addition to containing enormous hydrocarbons, NPR-A is very close to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which means that there would be relatively little additional infrastructure needed to bring this new oil to our domestic market.

But even here, progress has been stalled.”

Radical environmentalists: you are damaging the planet with your efforts to lock up safer drilling areas. There’s nothing clean and green about your misguided, nonsensical radicalism, and Americans are on to you as we question your true motives.

- Sarah Palin

And from her Twitter page:

Extreme Enviros: Drill, Baby, Drill in ANWR – Now Do You Get It?

 

I for one am less concerned about new drilling and more concerned about technology so we don't have to begin new drilling.  We don't even need new drilling right now, we need more responsibility from oil and energy companies to find new developments and better ways to handle mistakes like the Gulf Spill.  I'd rather run out of oil then continue to destroy our planet and livelihood.  Fishermen, supermarkets, families, and other businesses all rely on the business in the Gulf and even Alaska where Palin so eagerly wants to drill.  When those areas are destroyed, we lose money and starve while some die.  She hunts, thinks recycling is stupid, wanted to shut down a nature preserve in Alaska for oil, and thinks drilling in her home state is safer.  Drilling has the same risks everywhere Palin.  Shallow drilling only puts the possibility of another rig blast right next to our homes and children.  Saying you care about the environment then advocate new drilling is hypocrisy.  We don't need new drilling, only smarter ways to run out planet.  Think, Baby, Think is my motto.

Tennis!!!

I have been having a lot of fun playing tennis again and I missed it so much.  I am not as good as I was but I am dedicating more time to the sport and even my young son is obsessed!  He loves watching it and playing so we bought him a new racquet today like the big kids use and he was ecstatic!!  I am likely going back to the courts tomorrow for an hour or so to practice my terrible serve!  I have to fix that and my son has a blast on the courts.  Hope all is well with you.  God Bless.

Tell me what you think of this new political agenda

    It has long been known that those convicted of violent crimes had violent pasts even into their childhoods including the torture and murder of animals for amusement.  Murders and criminals convicted of abuse and violence had pasts of animal torture as children and teens.  Now the state of California and 16th district Senator Dean Florez is pushing for legislature to become the first state to enact an animal abuse registry for criminals convicted of felony animal abuse and repeat animal abusers to make it illegal for them to obtain ownership of pets as well as set legal fines and jail time.   The bill is targeted towards general animal abusers in addition to harsher convictions for anyone involved with animal fighting rings, pet hoarders, companion animal caretakers, and farmers. 
    The one problem with the bill is the funding and it's the biggest concern for top animal rights groups who are against Florez means of funding including a director from the Humane Society of the United States.  To pay up to $1 million to fund this bill, Florez is proposing there be a 2-3¢ tax per pound of pet food sold in the state to raise the funds but many organizations believe that it's not fair for the public to pay even more when so many have already left their pets at shelters due to rising costs.  Most support his idea of a registry but taxing pet food is not their way of generating funds.    
    Madeline Bernstein, President of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Los Angeles (ASPCA division) says, "there aren't a lot of felony convictions for animal abuse" though misdemeanors are much higher.  
    Dean Florez has been endorsed by the United Farm Workers of America and has worked with them in the past in matters of health in the agriculture industries for more inspections and safety workers investigating food companies;  " random inspections of individual operations by FDA officials occur roughly once every five years." "As for Cal-OSHA, according to its database, from February 2006 to February 2007 there were a total of 201 inspections, including for field sanitation, out of more than 79,000 farms in California. At that rate it will take 396 years to inspect every farm once.  By the way, there were just 51 inspections confirmed in the vegetable industry that year."
    Dean Florez has championed for years for animal rights and is the Chairman for the Food and Agriculture Committee in Congress.  He applauded Prop 2 for passing in California last election requiring facilities for animals must allow them in their areas the ability to lay down, turn around, and completely stand on all limbs without being hunched over.  This new measure is essentially an extension of that bill in addition to improving the sanitation of our animal food products.  His plan is to penalize slaughterhouses and make California a "no downed animals" state.  This means that very sick, injured, disabled animals cannot be determined a "downer" by the facility and taking in abusive means to the kill floor.  Nodowners.org reports that one slaughterhouse in California as well as others everywhere used shock prods, forklifts, or brutal dragging of these ill animals all the way to the kill floor.  Some were not even deathly ill or in bad shape not to mention eating diseased animals contributes to food-borne illnesses like Mad Cow.  There is an act H.R. 4356 regarding this matter.
    Florez is partnering with the Animal Legal Defense Fund for his bill SB 1277.  Florez is running for Lt. Governor in the upcoming election for the state of California.